Century Village Oks Decision To Dispose Of Processed Sewage

November 8, 1985|By Robert McClure, Staff Writer

Sludge, muck and residents of Century Village were among Palm Beach County commissioners` concerns Thursday.

A representative of residents of Century Village west of West Palm Beach told county commissioners Thursday his group tentatively supports a decision to dispose of processed sewage -- sludge -- near the housing development.

Commissioners, after examining samples of sludge in its original liquid form and dried sludge, approved an interim plan for disposing of sludge by taking it to a sewage disposal facility owned by West Palm Beach near Haverhill Road and Okeechobee Boulevard.

For now, the sludge will be dried at the West Palm Beach facility, and then taken away by the Solid Waste Authority.

Eventually, county officials hope to dispose of sludge using three methods that are not yet technologically feasible: burning it, using it to form compost piles or using it to build up declining levels of muck in the western part of the county.

Muck is an organic soil used to grow sugar cane. Levels of the rich black dirt have been declining since it was drained in the early part of this century.

Century Village residents had protested against the idea of taking the sludge to the West Palm Beach-owned facility, but were convinced by Water Utilities Director Bob Weisman that the sludge would not bother them too much.

Saul Silverman, vice chairman of the Water Utilities Advisory Board, a citizens` council representing the Century Village residents` concerns, said he did not find out the commission would be considering the plan Thursday until a letter arrived Thursday morning.

Silverman said, however, that he checked with members of the advisory board and Century Village`s governing board before the commission considered the plan, and they tentatively agreed to go along with it.

``Should it come to pass that the optimistic hopes of Mr. Weisman . . . prove to be faulty, we reserve the right to come back in three months, six months, nine months, a year,`` Silverman said.

County Commission Chairman Ken Adams questioned Weisman about whether municipalities` sludge or that taken away by private companies could also be disposed of at the West Palm Beach facility.

But Weisman said West Palm Beach officials do not want to take the chance that other wastes would be mixed in with the private haulers` sludge.

``They`re concerned that they get good clean sludge, sludge that they know no one has dumped anything else into,`` he said.